The Stage

Jeremy Hunt warns arts leaders of “tough” times ahead

Published Wednesday 19 May 2010 at 15:26 by Alistair Smith

New culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has warned the arts sector that it must be prepared to accept its “share of the pain” come the Comprehensive Spending Review this autumn.

Hunt today unveiled proposals to redirect an extra £50 million a year from the Lottery to the arts sector, but warned that in the short term this extra cash might not outweigh cuts made to exchequer funding.

Giving his first keynote speech on the arts at the Roundhouse in north London, Hunt said: “I don’t know what the funding settlement will be. But I think it is entirely possible that we won’t be able to bridge the gap [with Lottery funds]. Certainly this year. But that’s why I think what we have to do is be imaginative and say ‘let’s look at every single possible source of funding, let’s not give up on this and say it’s tough there’s nothing we can do, let’s see if we can find every stream we can to get money into our sector.’

“Then, when we’ve got through this very difficult public spending round and we’ve put in these new streams of funding, we could end up in a few years time with an arts sector that’s getting even more generous support across the board than it is at the moment. But we won’t be able to deliver that this year, for sure.”

In addition to the government’s plans to change the proportions of cash generated by the Lottery, Hunt also reiterated his plans to reform Gift Aid , improve measures to encourage philanthropy and reward high-performing arts organisations through longer-term funding deals.

Meanwhile, as part of a bid to make sure that more funding reaches frontline arts organisations, he is asking grant giving bodies such as Arts Council England to reduce their administration costs to 5%. ACE has already reduced its admin costs to 6.6%, saving £6.5 million. Hunt also said that he was looking to save money in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and had already cancelled ministerial cars for the department, making an annual saving of £250,000.

“We must be able to look artists and arts organisations in the eye and assure them that no grants have been withdrawn because money has been lost in the system,” he said.

However, he stressed that the forthcoming three-year funding settlement would be “tough” and he did not think it would be possible for any cuts to be “painless” and entirely absorbed by administration costs.

“I think we have to accept that all budgets are going to be affected,” he said, “big budgets and small budgets. The state of public finances is just too acute… I think we have to accept that we are going to have to bear our share of the pain.”

“Top of the list is admin and bureaucracy, but there’s only so far that can go… I think it’s going to be very difficult to make cuts without pain. Even admin and bureaucracy cuts are not painless – they are people’s jobs.”